Strut for closet frame

ABSTRACT

A novel strut for setting up the frame structure of a closet is provided. The strut mainly contains a hollow square prism and a hollow L-shaped prism wrapping around an edge of the hollow square prism. The two outer sides of the L-shaped prism are extended to form blades and parallel troughs along the prisms for the accommodation of the edges of the face boards of the closet. On the two outer sides of the square prism, a number of through holes are configured at appropriate locations and with appropriate spacing therebetween for the installation of the shelves and rails of the closet drawers. As such, there is no tiny gap left between the face boards and shelves of the closet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(a) Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to closets, and moreparticularly to a strut for forming the frame structure of a closet.

(b) Description of the Prior Art

To avoid water erosion and for easy cleaning of grease produced fromcooking, modern day kitchen closets are usually made of stainless steel,or are assembled based on a metallic frame using stainless steel.However, the appearance of these closets is compromised by the exposedbolts joining various parts of the closet, or there are tiny gapsbetween these parts so that the closets cannot maintain a closed,water-tight, and bug-proof interior space.

Conventionally, to cover up these bolts or gaps, decoration strips andadhesives are used. After a period of time of usage, the decorationstrips often fall off as the adhesion deteriorates from the moist andhigh temperature of the kitchen, or they are sometimes peeled off bynaughty children.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary purpose of the present invention is to provide a novel strutfor setting up the frame structure of a closet to obviate the foregoingshortcomings of the prior arts.

The strut according to the present invention mainly contains a hollowsquare (or other polygonal shape) prism and a hollow L-shaped prismwrapping around an edge of the hollow square prism. The two outer sidesof the L-shaped prism are extended to form blades and parallel troughsalong the prisms for the accommodation of the edges of the face boardsof the closet. On the two outer sides of the square prism, a number ofthrough holes are configured at appropriate locations and withappropriate spacing therebetween for the installation of the shelves andrails of the closet drawers. As such, there is no tiny gap left betweenthe face boards and shelves of the closet. This is a primary objectiveof the present invention.

On the other hand, on the inner surfaces of the blades, there are anumber of parallel ribs so as to provide stronger clamp to the faceboards of the closet and, thereby, to form a more air-tight interiorspace. This is another objective of the present invention.

In addition, along the two sides of the square prism where the throughholes are configured, the inner walls of the two sides are thickened toform reinforcing ribs so as to make the through holes more robust. Thisis yet another objective of the present invention.

Further more, height-adjustable stands or wheels could be installed atthe bottom ends of the struts. This is still another objective of thepresent invention.

The foregoing object and summary provide only a brief introduction tothe present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects ofthe present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which willbecome apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detaileddescription of the invention and the claims should be read inconjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specificationand drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similarparts.

Many other advantages and features of the present invention will becomemanifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to thedetailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which apreferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of thepresent invention is shown by way of illustrative example.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the strut according to a firstembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective exploded view showing the details of joining theface boards and the bottom shelf of a closet to the strut of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a closet using the struts of FIG.1.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the cross-section of the strut accordingto a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the cross-section of the strut accordingto a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the cross-section of the strut accordingto a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the cross-section of the strut accordingto a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a closet assembly using the strutsaccording to various embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following descriptions are of exemplary embodiments only, and arenot intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of theinvention in any way. Rather, the following description provides aconvenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of theinvention. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made inthe function and arrangement of the elements described without departingfrom the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the strut according to a firstembodiment of the present invention. As illustrated, the strut 1 mainlycontains a hollow square prism 10 and a hollow L-shaped prism 20wrapping around an edge of the hollow square prism 10. The two outersides of the L-shaped prism 20 (i.e., the two sides farther away fromthe square prism 10) are extended to form blades 21 and 22. As such, theblades 21 and 22, and the prisms 10 and 20 jointly form two paralleltroughs 30 along the prisms 10 and 20 for the accommodation of the edgesof the face boards of the closet. On the inner surfaces of the blades 21and 22 (i.e., the surfaces closer to the square prism 10), there are anumber of parallel ribs 21A, 21B, 22A, 22B so as to provide strongerclamp to the boards of the closet and, thereby, to form a more air-tightinterior space. On the other hand, on the two outer sides of the squareprism 10 (i.e., the two sides farther away from the L-shaped prism 20),a number of through holes 11, 12, 13 are configured at appropriatelocations and with appropriate spacing therebetween. Along the two sidesof the square prism 10 where the through holes 11, 12, 13 areconfigured, the inner walls of the two sides are thickened to formreinforcing ribs 14 and 15 so as to make the through holes 11, 12, 13more robust. The struts 1 are molded and formed by aluminum extrusion.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, four struts 1 constitute the four verticaledges of a cubic closet 60 respectively. The closet 60 has a rectangularbottom shelf 6 whose sides are bended down and whose four corners arerecessed to match the lateral dimension of each of the four squareprisms 10 of the four struts 1. Then bolts are screwed from the insideof the bottom shelf 6 into the through holes 13 so as to fix the bottomshelf 6 among the four struts 1. For each of the struts 1, a supportingmember 51 is installed at the bottom end to support the closet 60. Thesupporting member 51 contains a plug 50 inserted into the bottom end 10Bof the square prism 10 and a height-adjustable stand 52 or a wheel 53 isin turn joined to the plug 50. The top ends 10A of the square prisms 10are used for the installation of a top shelf (not numbered).

As also shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, face boards 2 and 3 of the closet 60 areinstalled between two adjacent struts 1 by having their sides slid intothe opposing troughs 30 of the struts 1. As such, the edges of the faceboards 2 and 3 are hidden and protected by the blades 21 and 22. For thetwo sides of the closet 60, a number of rails (not numbered) for thedrawers of the closet 60 are installed by having their ends 6A, 6B, 7A,7B, 8A, 8B, bolted to the appropriate through holes 11, 12, and 13.

FIGS. 4˜7 illustrate the cross-sections of a number of alternativeembodiments of the strut. As shown in FIG. 4, the two outer sides of theL-shaped prism 20 are joined to form a rounded surface, instead of asharp edge. As shown in FIG. 5, the included angle a of the two outersides of the L-shaped prism 20 is greater than 90° while, in FIG. 6, theincluded angle β is less than 90°. Please note that, depending on theincluded angle, the prism 10 has different polygonal cross-sections.FIG. 7 shows a rather different embodiment of the strut. As illustrated,two prisms 10C and 10D are bridged together by two polygonal prisms 20Cand 20D with reinforcing walls 31 and 32 in the middle. With theseembodiments of the struts 1, 1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D, a closet assembly 61 asshown in FIG. 8 could be assembled.

While certain novel features of this invention have been shown anddescribed and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intendedto be limited to the details above, since it will be understood thatvarious omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the formsand details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be madeby those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spiritof the present invention.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or twoor more together may also find a useful application in other types ofmethods differing from the type described above.

While certain novel features of this invention have been shown anddescribed and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intendedto be limited to the details above, since it will be understood thatvarious omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the formsand details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be madeby those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spiritof the present invention.

1. A strut for a vertical edge of a closet, comprising: a hollowpolygonal prism having a plurality of through holes at appropriatelocations on two outer sides of said polygonal prism for theinstallation of the shelves and rails of the closet drawers of saidcloset, said polygonal prism having a supporting member at the bottomend; and a hollow L-shaped prism wrapping around an edge of saidpolygonal prism, two outer sides of said L-shaped prism being extendedto form blades; said blades and said polygonal prism and said L-shapedprism forming parallel troughs for the accommodation of the edges of theface boards of said closet.
 2. The strut according to claim 1, wherein,on the inner surfaces of said blades, a number of parallel ribs areconfigured to clamp the face boards of the closet.
 3. The strutaccording to claim 1, wherein, along the two sides of said polygonalprism where said through holes are configured, the inner walls of thetwo sides are thickened by reinforcing ribs.
 4. The strut according toclaim 1, wherein said supporting member comprises a plug inserted intothe bottom end of said strut; and a wheel joined to said plug.
 5. Thestrut according to claim 1, wherein said supporting member comprises aplug inserted into the bottom end of said strut; and a height-adjustablestand joined to said plug.